ILM's 2014 End of Year Albums & Tracks Poll / VOTING THREAD

I kept the playlist private so that ppl couldn't delete albums they disliked

voted :)))

no nobody vote until you listen to the orlando julius album

i definitely plan on voting for this k-pop song, which also got a late singles jukebox rave, and which sounds derived from an icicle, check it out: iu - sogyeokdong

also there's this song, which i heard very late in the year, a totally enjoyable flexible electro-funk throwback: zo! - we are on the move

rtc suggested in the nominations thread that it might be more of a 2013 track but the video came out in january 2014 and is a total delight incidentally

deep tech was the ~big new thing in uk dance this year and if you want to actually know about it tim f, rtc and co can enlighten you on its thread, but it provided so many incredible anthems this year

hodgson - "babylon system" is all monolithic doomed street preacher authority that's very in tune with ~these times; the break at 5.20 is life-changing

jay baptiste/troy hudson - "real shifters (get down)" was the in-the-moment call to the dancefloor aided by some excellent rubbery basslines. no full version on youtube or soundcloud but it's on spotify

"babylon system" is a total vortex

prob another deep tech song i'm going rep hard for is rs4 - gladiator. so sinewy

I'm probably not gonna get the Spotify albums playlist updated until tonight fwiw

there are still a ton of last-minute nominations on the other thread that I haven't added

also consider including some emotional diddy music on your ballot

this track is from 2013 but i nominated it because year of impact, and Ukraine 2014 and because its awesome and i think lots of ilmers will dig it:

Dakh Daughters Rozy Donbass

i also wanna rep hard for this track, sure to be in my top 3 or 4, such a sublimely weird post-chill/post-witch/post-weeknd lo-fi chopped & screwed teen masterpiece, like some sort of Anti-QT, yet just as glimmering

Spooky Black - Without You

who knew that 2014 would be humbled before a 16-minute solo guitar folk song that so happens to be one of the greatest pieces of music I've heard in my entire life

seriously, if there's one thing I'm stanning for (and there may be more, but if I'm just allowed one), it is Richard Dawson (raucous experimental UK folk racket w/ intense picaresque realness vox)

if you enjoy this song or 'the vile stuff' you could vote for his tracks and his album and i would be just that little bit happier

also vote jute gyte! lol that's a lone war

srs tho if flamboyant goon tie doesn't win the albums poll then this place doesn't even deserve nepotism

I voted. I'd encourage all to listen to the Botanist album before voting. Its a thing of beauty.

https://verdant-realm-botanist.bandcamp.com/album/vi-flora

Voted.

botanist album is fantastic - i add my praise to the chorus

I just really really want to see Phantogram's Fall in Love make the tracks poll. Only reason I'm making a tracks ballot tbh (esp after I fucked up and waited too long to nominate half the songs I wanted to put in it)

xp love the Botanist album as well

I'm voting for "Fall In Love" as a symbolic vote for "Howling at the Moon", which is really the Phantogram song I love but didn't nominate because I decided my yearly railing against "tactical voting" was futile and I might as well try to make it work for me by not diluting the selection pool of the artists I hope place.

<nocollusion> which popcaan + mc bin laden tracks are getting the most attention? i like a few tracks for each but i don't have the ballot space.

"Popcaan - Everything Nice" for me

Michiru Aoyama - 暖かな季節 (Warm Season) will def‘ get a vote from me. Gorgeous meditative stuff that i worked to a lot this year

Can we go ahead and award "Have A Sad Cum" most hilarious song title of 2014?

SPOTIFY ALBUMS PLAYLIST:

http://open.spotify.com/user/sb0ut0n/playlist/0Px5twPcf7IoDACrD09jpp

(not quite complete b/c of the ridiculous flood of last minute album nominations today, I will try to catch up during the week)

crut, Orland Julius is on there now :)

thanks!!!

That Orlando Julius album is a cinch for top 5 on my ballot, maybe top 3. It's so great

14 ballots already! Results so far are...misleading.

xp with regards to popcaan, 'waiting so long' is my personal fav but can't imagine one track would be the collective pick
album should do okay tho

THE Popcaan track is 'The System', but there was some contention as to whether it's a 2014 track as it was released as a single some time before.

I'll probably pick 'waiting so long' too, though I think some of you (gr80?) might also like the non-WWCF track I nominated Fall in Love.

this is a good song, listed twice. idk which is right, id say just combine votes if each gets votes

Hit-Boy ft. HS87 - Grindin’ My Whole Life
HS87 - Grindin' My Whole Life

I doubt anyone else besides me is gonna vote for this freaky-ass Finnish bhangra rap tune by a hippie MC and her brother (especially since you won't understand the lyrics), but it was my jam for the whole year 2014, so I just had to put it as #1 in my ballot...

Yhdentekevää - Pyhä Lehmä anthem

I posted this at the end of the nomination thread but here it is again:

A shade over 1500 singles were nominated. Here's the complete listener's list to ILX's 2014 in singles:

On Spotify (1,230 songs):
http://open.spotify.com/user/mondosalvo/playlist/1w7KqvfFqnB3eplcxtDkW1

On YouTube (241 songs... Bear in mind that YouTube being YouTube, that playlist is likely to lose tracks over the next few months.)
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqiswAZfVPrX-KKTetdFgmiYxT6-AIrw

Not on Spotify or YouTube but Available Elsewhere (32):
18qm - Untitled A1 form Nontron C-38 - https://soundcloud.com/18qm/untitled-a1-from-nontron-c-38
aberrantkenosis - Mambo No. 5 (bike horn version) - https://aberrantkenosis.bandcamp.com/track/mambo-no-5-bike-horn-version
Bamnan - Visionary - https://soundcloud.com/bamnan/03-visionary?in=bamnan/sets/problems
Bludded Head - Pouring Rain - http://bluddedhead.bandcamp.com/track/pouring-rain
Blue Hawaii - Get Happy / Get Happier - https://soundcloud.com/bluehawaii/sets/get-happy-get-happier
Choi Sam - Answer - https://soundcloud.com/kawaiinene/choi-sam-answer
Cool Japan - Tokyo (Fuck Real Life) (featuring Lovely Summer Chan & Sarah Bonito) - https://soundcloud.com/c-ool-japan/tokyo-fuck-real-life
Dawn Richard - Physical - https://soundcloud.com/dawn_richard/physical
Dick Diver - New Name Blues - https://soundcloud.com/fruits-flowers/dick-diver-new-name-blues
Elizabeth Veldon - An Empty Room (Redux) - http://elizabethveldon.bandcamp.com/album/an-empty-room-redux
Fake Blood - 1 - https://fakeblood.bandcamp.com/track/1
Honey Cocaine - Icey Bitch (Syap Edit) - https://soundcloud.com/syap/honey-cocaine-icey-bitch-syap-edit
Hugo Massien - Better Let Her - https://soundcloud.com/hugomassien/hugo-massien-better-let-her
Jack N Danny - Heat - https://soundcloud.com/jackndanny/jack-n-danny-heat-mastered
Jane Weaver - Argent - https://soundcloud.com/finderskeepersrecords/jane-weaver-argent
Jason Lescalleet - Autumn Leaves - https://soundcloud.com/glistening-labs/autumn-leaves-october-2014
Jason Lescalleet - Holiday in November - http://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/track/holiday-in-november
Jennifer Castle - Broken Vase - https://www.dropbox.com/s/g26w59t8bnx8rgi/09%20Broken%20Vase.mp3?dl=0
Jessie Ware - You & I (Forever) (Shift K3Y Remix) - https://soundcloud.com/shift-key/jessie-ware-you-i-forever
K15 - Bordeaux - https://soundcloud.com/wotnotmusic/k15-bordeaux-ep
Kacy Hill - Experience - https://soundcloud.com/kacyhill/experience
Katy Gately - Far - https://soundcloud.com/katiegately/far-1
KittiB - Wake Me Up - https://soundcloud.com/kittibitch/kittib-wake-me-up
Lesley Flanigan - Shattering - http://lesleyflanigan.bandcamp.com/track/shattering
lilangelboi - guilty - https://soundcloud.com/lilangelboi/guilty
Linden Jay with Sam Frank - Be Like You - http://vimeo.com/100951685
MATMOS - Weed World - https://soundcloud.com/adhocfm/matmos-weed-world
Mesa Ritual - Procession VIII -https://soundcloud.com/sige-1/procession-viii
Noni Wo - How Can I Plz U - https://soundcloud.com/noniwo/how-can-i-plz-u-1
ponibbi – HEARTSKIP - https://soundcloud.com/ponibbi/heartskip
Tef Poe - War Cry - https://soundcloud.com/tef-poe/war-cry-produced-by-dj-smitty-jay-nixon-diss-record
Thom Yorke - Nose Grows Some - http://vimeo.com/109478381 ….? I think?

Not Available For Streaming (6):
Bryan Eubanks - Enclosed Space Phenomena
Cavern of Anti-Matter - Cluster of Rainbows
Kevin Drumm / Jason Lescalleett - The Abyss
Melchior Productions LTD - Meditation 2
Theo Parrish - Helmut Lampshade

Taylor Swift (10):
Taylor Swift - I Wish You Would
Taylor Swift - New Romantics
Taylor Swift - Out of the Woods
Taylor Swift - Style
Taylor Swift - You Are In Love
Taylor Swift - Blank Space
Taylor Swift - Clean
Taylor Swift - All You Had to Do Was Stay
Taylor Swift - This Love
Taylor Swift - How You Get the Girl

SPOTIFY ALBUMS PLAYLIST:

http://open.spotify.com/user/sb0ut0n/playlist/0Px5twPcf7IoDACrD09jpp

now complete - 9,360 songs, 707 hours

every time I try to post the list of non-Spotify links I get an error, I'm off to the HTML Playground.

Imago, everyone, that Richard Dawson album is something else! Like a Geordie Aeroplane Over The Sea for Derek Bailey enthusiasts only infinitely better than that may sound.

imo it is nothing short of the finest pastoralia the north of england has produced, its folk stylings tempered with something utterly seaborne & untameable. 'nothing important' is a preternaturally brilliant folk-prog exegesis on mortality for god's sake, yet it also feels…slightly improvised?

glad to have you on board, i really think this stuff is the most interesting & emotionally affecting music coming out of this country at the moment

save for the odd bit of dance music, it feels like it's the only thing coming out of the UK i really give a shit about, or have done, in a long time.

it's like u guys have never listened to Tim Buckley or Bill Orcutt

Dawson record is pretty damn good, mind you, not gonna crack my top 25 though.

i couldn't listen to anymore new music from 2014 so i sent in my ballot

if anyone wants to check out a gorgeous single from "new African jazz" singer-songwriter Somi. it's so good i'd hate to be the only person who votes for it - youtube or spotify

it's like u guys have never listened to Tim Buckley or Bill Orcutt

Dawson record is pretty damn good, mind you, not gonna crack my top 25 though.

― some kind of terrible IDM with guitars (sleeve), Wednesday, January 7, 2015 3:02 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

These are quite disparate, superficial comparisons IMO. I see the similarities to some extent, but there's not that much in common. Orcutt, like Derek Bailey, is a lot more abstract than Dawson. Tim Buckley? Maybe, but I'll argue that the locational and historical differences place these two miles apart.

can we go 4 years in a row with a Miguel track in the top 10?

Santana - Indy ft. Miguel

Other than the IU track Brad linked to upthread, my other K-pop choice for the year is Orange Caramel - Catallena, an ABBA-inspired disco romp about a girl crush, with heavy New Order bass and a chorus lifted from a Punjabi folk song. Great video too.

Two tracks and an album for your consideration:

TEMPURA KIDZ vs Charisma.com - ミイラキラー: Party-rapping J-pop, so much fun
Quiltland - Forever: think Air France with added opera singers
Jorge Drexler - Bailar en la Cueva: omnivorous samba/cumbia/folk/pop/LatAmHipShit/etc album that I've been using to banish the winter gloom (title track)

Do people vote with their heart or more tactically?

Last year for instance, no one else voted for my #1 album so it was almost a wasted vote. If I'd have chosen one of the ilxor hivemind albums I liked instead it would have had more of an influence on that album's placing.

i vote with my <3 but that's just me

otoh your hivemind albums will place anyway, voting your less hivemindy places high increases the chance of them sneaking into the list

i vote for the albums i like in the order i like them most

the idea of a 'wasted vote' is specious nonsense obv

I will be wasting all of my votes

every artist u vote for will become 0.0087 % more popular

wait, are we voting for artists or tracks?

I'm open to any changes that have wide support. To be honest though, I think the current voting system works pretty well and as JF says most people seem to be happy enough with it.

Regarding nominations, I don't really mind if we allow a larger quota. The difference to the final results would be minimal - if something doesn't get nominated under the current regime it probably doesn't have enough support to bother the Top 77 either way.

seandalai,

further points of consideration,

regarding the nominations process, this need to increase, in previous years it's been a tedious drawn out affair with people waiting for other people to post their nominations e.g people using 7/30 then say 15/20 then 26/30. Look how more efficient the metal poll nominations is with the shackles off. I know that is within a genre and i understand the need for practical limits in a multi-genre poll but the existing nominations limits are far too restricting even with a 10 bonus selections in the last few days.

By putting slack in the process it will make the nominations stage more streamlined and efficient. Notice, I mentioned up to there is no compulsion to reach 50 for track and albums, re: most people are tapped out of nominations before they even reach 30 in each category because other people have already nominated things they'd planned to nominate.

re: We've been using the same nomination/voting limits for several years and there are rarely complaints, but bring your case.

Most people aren't interested OR don't think about process / methodology - they just accept what's given to them. Hence the lack of debate. They know a poll is coming up and just accept what's presented to them and once the poll process has started, it's often too late change things and the status quo is preserved. No change, no improvements.

regarding the voting, this still applies, Having more votes will also make the results of the poll countdown more interesting and make the comparative data analysis more relevant due to a larger data set per user. i.e increasing the voting will increase the data set of opinions and make the data analysis of results more meaningful, i.e Glenn's data analysis.

For prolific multi-genre listeners the existing voting system is inadequate, again i refer to up to to 40 votes on tracks and albums, there is no compulsion to reach this limit. As i mentioned previously "In the streaming era people are exposed to more genres / artists than ever before, therefore more voting options are needed to represent your favourites of the year." - i.e with the growth in streaming features (e.g discover weekly and spotify fresh finds) and streaming services particularly spotify and apple music in 2015 - many people have been exposed to more artists than previously. The increase in votes is crucial for improvements to happen.

I have presented the reasoned case for moderate and practical improvements, as i summed up previously "I believe these improvements will make the nominations, voting, results and analysis more interesting and provide a better representation of the 2015 music favourites of ILM."

Hey djmartian, I hear what you're saying though I'm not sure you'll like my reply...

Personally speaking, I'm not hugely invested in how nominations are run. I've said before that I'm not against near-unlimited nominations in principle. JF is usually in charge of nominations and I leave the decisions to him. Again this is just my personal opinion, but I think there is a sweet spot for ballot size - large enough so voters can express their diverse tastes but not so large that a lot of people end up filling space with albums they heard once or twice and thought were ok but didn't really really get into. Whether this sweet spot is 25 or not I can't say for sure but it feels like the right ballpark.

Ultimately though, the poll belongs to the community and should be run however the community most enjoys. I don't want to be making decisions based on what I think is fun, or what djmartian thinks is fun, or what JF thinks is fun - there needs to be some sort of group discussion. Otherwise it just gets stressful for the poll runners trying to second-guess what people will like.

Two other points: (a) One reason the nominations period is so long is because of the holiday season - we want to finish on the 31st of January but we need to start well before Christmas so that people have time to get involved. It's not really about the nominations process per se. (b) As we will see when the poll rolls out, there is always debate about the poll mechanics, how noms are run, how voting is run, how the rollout is run, many of the points that you bring up. And there is never anything resembling consensus about whether changes would improve the process, which is why we keep things m/l the same from year to year.

^this guy otm

Hey, silent majority here speaking: the process is fine, don't change it.

I'm in favor of increasing the ballot size to 50 (or more) albums and as many tracks. Or 100 that you can split among tracks and albums as you see fit. I don't see any real downside to it.

Hey, silent majority here speaking: the process is fine, don't change it.

― https://youtu.be/WpYeekQkAdc for Gaz Coombes (The Reverend), Wednesday, December 9, 2015 4:32 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^

also, a plea for less of this data entry/hoover consumption vibe when the poll actually happens

winnowing your favourites down is kind of the point above tallying, like, your 46th favourite track of the year just for the sake of it

yep, it's good how it is. i don't want to speak for everyone, but i certainly haven't heard anything close to 50+ outstanding records this year?

Agreed, I know a lot of you are are bigger music buffs than me, but how many of you really hear 50 great new albums a year? Personally, I can't imagine ever having the time to even delve into 50 current albums each year, let alone listening to so many current albums that I can pick 50 great ones among them.

For tracks, 50 seems like a decent number though. It makes no sense to have the same amount of slots for albums and tracks.

same amount of votes but more noms would be good - we should get at least as many noms as we have votes imo

exclude non-wizards imo

Y'all remember that the last couple days of nominations are basically a bonus round, right? You start off with 30, so you nominate your stuff and perhaps other people nominate things you'd have liked to have nominated and, then, a day or two before nominations end, you come back and you're given the leeway to nominate things that are missing/things you've just heard and feel should be there/things you know no one besides you will vote for but it makes you happy to have them present.

I think there's more value in this method. It's like a second chance.

2015 nominations open on Friday btw

― a cruet of destiny, Monday, December 7, 2015 2:49 PM (4 days ago)

Is this still the plan? (Can't ask w/o ackowledging what a HUGE amount of work must go into tracking the nominations.)

i tried my best to influence change by suggesting positive improvements, very disappointed with the inadequate nominations process. No change, no improvements. It doesn't cater for the needs of multi-genre music listeners.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but I don't have enough free time to keep up with as many nominations that would come in if the process had virtually no limits. I'd have to quit my job or not sleep or both. And as someone else mentioned, at what point does the nominations and voting process cross a line from things you really love and would like to see place into "things I heard and I thought were decent"? If you've got 30 nominations to split between tracks and albums, it's all going to be what you consider top shelf music.

I got a list of about 40 noms right now (only albums, no tracks, and that doesn't even include metal as they're probably wasted noms). I understand the amount of work though, but I definitely would have liked a bit more room. I'm gonna wait for others to nominate the most popular stuff so I can cut my list down to 30.

There's usually an extra few at the death.

Right. The last 48 hours or so, we dish out an additional 10 nominations to everybody in crunch time to make sure nothing was missed, forgotten or overlooked.

Yeah I'll probably be fine in the end but I wonder what's the reasoning for not allowing the extra 10 right away? Seems to be less stressful and to give a chance to these 10 albums or tracks to be noticed before voting.

I've found that in the rush to get your favorites nominated early in the process, you always forget something key and then hope someone else likes it as much as you did. Alternately, you may find something between now and January 2nd that you want to nominate and, whoops, all your nominations are gone! The 11th hour bonus is a safety net for several reasons.

winnowing your favourites down is kind of the point above tallying, like, your 46th favourite track of the year just for the sake of it

― lex pretend, Wednesday, December 9, 2015 3:53 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^^^